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KurtzTaylor,
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HarnessUS"Blown away by the incredible features." Woody
LongacreTempe AZ,
USA"Amazing! I LOVE it!"

Colin GreenSydney, Australia"Great improvement of a superb product" Ed
JacksonWoking,
UK"Very impressive! I have been using the SBI site builder, which in itself is
an impressive tool. After seeing the new version of XsitePro though, I can honestly say that it is
second to none, in terms of functionality and features." Cesar
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ParsonsVirginia,
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Texas, USA

Paul Smithson - 15th December 2008When you’re getting ready to launch a
product, you need to have a well thought out plan if you are to
maximize the chances of it success and minimize the chance of
having a flop on your hands.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size fits
all formula for launching a product or service, as there are so
many different factors at play such as price, target audience,
advertising budget, etc. However, there are a few key things
you can do to kick-start nearly any product
launch.

One of the first things you need to plan
for is generating some pre-launch buzz. Don’t think you
need to be a well-known marketer to generate buzz. You can get
a good buzz going about your product, even if you’re completely
unknown in your field.

One easy way to do this is to find some
relevant forums in your niche, but don’t rush straight in and
start promoting your new product or service, as that is a
complete no-no. Before you even think to mention your product
you should make some genuinely informative, helpful posts
related to the subject of your product, but don’t mention your
product, or even that you’re about to release a
product.

The point of this post is twofold.
First, you establish yourself as an expert on your chosen
topic. If your post contains good information, and it’s
presented well, people will begin to trust the fact that you
know your stuff on the subject.

Second, you’ll make people want more.
Because you’ve left out the key points, there’ll be a lot of
questions on the subject. Your product will help answer
those questions, but you don’t want to reveal your product idea
yet.

Remember, if you even hint about a product
release, your post will probably be deleted. Just answer
as many questions as you can, without giving too much of your
product away.

Invite people to send you a private message
if they have questions. Keep those messages and send them
a reply closer to launch with an invitation to sign up to your
pre-launch notification list.

Once you’ve established your credibility
and proven yourself to be a helpful member and supportive
member of the forum you can reveal your intentions, but choose
the right moment. Make sure that before you do so that you have
made a genuinely useful contribution otherwise people will
smell a rat and you’ll go from being hero to zero in a single
post.

A method of doing this that can prove
effective is to offer some sort of free incentive to get people
to sign up for your pre-launch notification list. This
could be a free chapter from your product, or the prospect of a
hefty discount on the product only for those who are on the
pre-launch notification list. You can make this a general
invitation or, if you feel it would be right to do so, you can
make it exclusively for people on that
forum.

The purpose of this data collection
exercise is to build a list of people who have already shown
interest in your product, so that you’ll have buyers lined up
when your product is officially launched. This is crucial
because you’ll be relying on these ‘early adopters’ to start
spreading the word about your product as soon as they get their
hands on it.

Depending on the type of product you’re
offering it can be well worth offering the people on your
pre-launch list a heavy discount on the product, and possibly
the additional benefit of being able to buy the product a day
or two before the official launch. People love feeling like
they’re getting something exclusive. If you let them know
that they are the only ones who will have the product for the
first 24 or 48 hours after launch it will act as an extra
motivator, particular if you’ve introduced a scarcity factor by
limiting the number of units you are going to sell (e.g. “Only
1000 available”).

If you conduct this stage of the launch
program well you will have started some buzz within your chosen
niche and this will hopefully have brought you to the attention
of potential joint-venture partners.

Had you gone to these JV partners cold,
before they had even heard of you or your product, you probably
wouldn’t have received a reply, but now that you are ‘on the
radar’ the chances of them at least replying, and getting into
a dialog with you is increased
significantly.

However, don’t assume that JV partners will
be eager to get onboard. The chances are that they get
approached daily by people wanting them to recommend their
product. If you do get into a dialog with them treat them
professionally and respond to messages in a timely fashion so
that you can keep the discussion moving forward. Just because
they are interested this week doesn’t mean they’ll be
interested next week - things move quickly in the world of
online business - so aim to firm up on the commercial
arrangements and get their commitment as soon as you
can.

There are three things that interest most
potential JV partners. The first two are purely selfish on
their part and the third demonstrates their professionalism and
commitment to the people on their
lists.

The first selfish thing is WIIFM, which
stands for “What’s in it for me?”. It will often be the first
thing you get asked and it will often be a deal breaker for the
simple reason that potential JV partners know the worth of
their lists or sales channel.

The second thing is exclusivity. JV
partners love being able to offer something exclusive to their
list so if you can provide them with a selection of unique
bonuses that they can include when they sell your product
you’re far more likely to be able to get them on board than if
they get exactly the same deal as everyone
else.

Finally, some JV partners (not all, I’m
afraid to say) will actually want to see the product so be
prepared to send review copies out to anyone who requests one.
The reason a good JV partner will insist on this is that they
don’t want to recommend a second rate product to their list.
Sometimes just sending a few chapters of an ebook or the first
video in a set will suffice, but where possible, and when it is
potentially worth your while, send the whole product. This has
two benefits, firstly it meets the needs of the JV partner who
wants to know that what he is selling is good, and secondly it
can help the JV partner to better communicate the benefits to
the needs their own customers or people on their
lists.

As you can probably gather from the above,
launching a new product or service can be like running a
military campaign. There are various jobs that need to be done
and often they need to be done in a particular order, and that
is where a clear and well thought out plan comes in. Putting
together the plan and then putting into action is very much
along the lines of 1% inspiration (putting the plan together)
and 99% perspiration (putting the plan into action), but
without the 1% of inspiration and careful planning all the
perspiration will be worthless.

About Paul Smithson -
Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving
force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development
tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct
Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul
has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is
now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business
strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software
development, and maximizing the potential of on-line
businesses.

For more information about
this, and many other Internet Marketing-related
topics, visit Paul Smithson's site,
www.xsitepro.com.